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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Thomas the Train Birthday Party- The Details!

Choo Choo- Grayson turned Two! On a super rainy day in September (cue me doing a happy dance I decided to have the party indoors this year) we headed off to transform the workout room of the YMCA into Grayson's train-tastic fantasy. Seriously, this was the easiest party ever. We arrived an hour early and we set up in 30 minutes. The kids swam for an hour and then we had an hour and a half in the party room for food and cake. Clean up took 20 minutes and we were done. Whomever thought to have children's birthday parties somewhere other than your house was brilliant and needs a statue in their honor.

If you remember back in August I shared my party planning post with my inspiration board for Grayson's big two year old birthday. I ordered the invite above from SplashBox Printables via Etsy along with the water bottle labels you'll see a bit later on.

Décor: I reused the Happy Birthday Banner I made last year as the backdrop over the food table. To cover up the off white cinder block walls I picked up a Thomas party back drop from Party City for a few dollars as the back drop to the cake and present table. I ordered some train track table runners to set up my veggie and cake pop trains. On the food table I took metal bread loaf pans and attached paper wheels. I simply filled them with cut up veggies and used a train case that Grayson had as the engine. On the other table I ordered two dozen Thomas Cake Pops from The Cake Pop Shop and to display them I covered floral foam with burlap and popped them into the blocks. I lined them up with a train engine as treats for the kiddos (and adults).

The hubs took some scrap wood and created two wooden sculptures for the food table. The first was a stand for the drink dispenser, which made it look like a water tower. We put a sign on it saying Iced Tea Water Tower for the adults to know what was inside of the blue igloo cooler. The second was a three foot tall Cranky the Crane that we used to hold up the plate of sandwiches once they were delivered from a local deli.

Like last year's wooden cut outs I continued the tradition with making some Thomas ones to turn the tables into trains for the kids to sit at. I used the same technique as last year, made a transparency and used a projector to get the image on the board. Then a little paint and time and you have choo choo tables, that were a big hit with the kids.

Then we filled the space with balloons and some hanging Thomas banners to make the room look less like a workout space and more festive. The plates, cups, and napkins all came from the party store for a serious discount.

As for food we had a local deli deliver chicken tenders, meatball sliders and chips at the time the kids were to get out of the pool. It was hot, delicious and perfect because I didn't have to worry about a thing. Then we had iced tea, water bottles with custom labels and diesel fuel juice boxes for the kids.

The cake I ordered from a local bakery and while it was scrumptious and beautiful, it wasn't exactly what I was going for. I took in various pictures of cartoon-y kiddy cakes and what I got when I picked it up was much more wedding-y. Was it still good? Oh yes. Was it a kids birthday cake? No. Did anyone care? Not at all. It did provide a good chuckle to everyone who saw it, especially when I threw the train in front of it.

Overall it was a wonderful party and I couldn't have asked for better day!

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Welcome to my crazy life!Come along with me as I attempt to navigate the crazy life of a wife, new mommy, professional cheapskate, DIY-er, and teacher

I'm a wife to the hubs and a mama to the bean. A lover of sweet tea and pajama pants. A wanna-be photographer and world traveler. A black and gold football junkie. Cheap at heart, with expensive taste. Spend my days chasing the man-child, DIY-ing my dreams, and keeping a lid on my sarcasm. This is my crazy life, welcome to it.